Building a house from balsa wood or a car from aluminum foil would be ridiculous, right? But anyone who owns in-wall speakers has probably committed a similar crime—they have, in essence, built their speaker cabinets from flimsy, brittle gypsum board. When the speaker plays, the gypsum board vibrates and makes its own sound, almost as if someone was singing the Gilligan’s Island theme while you are trying to listen to Beethoven. The problem is most acute in the bass, which is why so many in-walls sound boomy, indistinct and annoying.

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The WallBracer is a spring-loaded damper designed to reduce wall vibrations induced by an in-wall speaker’s woofer. Its effects are readily apparent to the ear—bass becomes more defined and less boomy. (Click image to enlarge)

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Some manufacturers solve this problem by including back boxes with their in-walls; the back box serves as a speaker cabinet and prevents most of those troublesome wall vibrations. Back boxes, however, can greatly diminish deep bass response, and they can be complicated to install. Mirage proposes a simpler solution: Minimize the vibrations by stuffing the walls with foam and adding spring-loaded dampers. The company includes two dampers and four pieces of foam with every model in its Incognita HDT line of in-wall speakers.

The foam itself is nothing special, but the damper, which Mirage calls the WallBracer, merits examination. It works like a spring clip, but backward—your installer pushes its two legs together and slips them inside the wall. When released, the two legs push out against the drywall panels on both sides of the wall. Two pieces of foam and one WallBracer go both above and below the speaker.

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